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On refugees, Canada learns its history lesson: Burman

With fear and intolerance rising around the world, Canada shows the way — decades after turning away Jews fleeing Nazis.

A volunteer hugs a girl on a beach after she crossed the Aegean Sea on a dinghy from Turkey to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos with other refugees and migrants, on Nov. 24, 2015. (Santi Palacios / Associated Press)

A magical moment in Canada’s modern history will begin to unfold next week, and it will be a period that historians will be writing about for decades.

But I suspect its immediate impact will take us by surprise.

Beginning next week, as many as 1,000 Syrian refugees a day will begin arriving in Canada. It is the final stage of an odyssey that, for many of them, has taken years. But it is an odyssey that will emotionally affect this country as much as it will change the lives of those families.

Brace yourself because the scenes over the next several weeks will be draining. At Canada’s major airports, and in towns and cities throughout the country, the arrivals will at times be tearful, joyful, chaotic and stirring.

Sobbing family members being reunited after years of despair. Grinning children in awe of the commotion. Protective mothers shielding their families from the cold. And greeting them will be throngs of smiling, welcoming Canadians with teddy bears, toys and winter clothing.

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These scenes will be repeated countless times, but all of them in their own way will be unique and life changing. They will also create a new bond: Thousands of innocent victims of Syria’s bloody civil war finally getting refuge in Canada; and individual Canadians — finally — finding a way to help them.

The government plans announced this week were a clear response to public anxieties that the process shouldn’t move too quickly. The first wave of 10,000 refugees will arrive by the end of next month. Another 15,000 will follow by the end of February, and a further 10,000 by the end of next year.

As with any major government policy, this requires scrutiny. Is it properly planned? Who is getting priority, and why? Will it cost too much? But let’s keep these reservations in perspective.

After years of being an international delinquent, Canada is embarking on an initiative — “a national project,” as the government terms it — that is now leading the way ahead of several major Western powers. That is no small achievement.

Although it is widely acknowledged that the Syrian civil war has created the most serious humanitarian crisis in a generation, the United States, for one, has admitted only about 2,200 Syrian refugees since 2012. Britain’s number, which has never been made public, is thought to be similarly small, although both countries have promised to increase their numbers significantly.

However, in both the United States and Britain, public opinion toward refugees has become more hostile following the terrorist attacks in Paris — even though only French and Belgium nationals were identified as the suicide bombers. Recent polls suggest that nearly one in two Americans (48 per cent) believe the country should close its borders entirely to Syrian refugees. The number in Britain is 44 per cent.

The squalid depths of the American debate are best captured by the statements of Donald Trump, who is still the leading presidential candidate for the Republican party. As recently as Monday, he repeated his entirely bogus claim that after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 he saw “thousands and thousands” of Arab Americans cheering in New Jersey.

Trump has also proposed compiling a “database” that would track Muslims in the United States, an idea that has been compared with what the Nazis did to Jews in Germany in the 1930s.

It is remarkable — and laudable — that the Canadian approach to Syria’s refugees is differing so dramatically from where American public opinion seems to be headed.

The dramatic arrival of Syrian refugees beginning next week is similar to what happened in Canada in 1979 when the Conservative government welcomed 60,000 Vietnamese “boat people” fleeing Communist rule.

At a cabinet meeting in 1979 before the decision was made, Immigration Minister Ron Atkey told his colleagues about a new book, None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948, by Irving Abella and Harold Troper. It revealed how Canada closed its doors to Jewish refugees before, during and after the Second World War.

The message in 1979 was that Canada should not repeat that horrific mistake.

In the weeks ahead, as these emotional Syrian airport arrivals dominate our media, Canadians should be gratified that this message has not been lost in 2015.

Tony Burman, former head of CBC News and Al Jazeera English, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com .

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